At our manufacturing facilities, our philosophy is zero-waste. We are capable of utilizing every piece of lumber for different projects and products. Our vertically integrated manufacturing allows us to be involved with the wood during every step of the process. All of our products are 100% Lacey Act Compliant. FSC™ certified material is available upon specification. Black Locust Lumber can serve all your project needs on a global scale.
At Black Locust Lumber, we prioritize sustainability by sourcing our black locust timber from local and regional forests in both the US and EU. This approach minimizes the environmental impact associated with long-distance transportation and supports local economies. Our strategically located facilities allow us to serve global project needs efficiently without the need for cross-continent shipping, ensuring a lower carbon footprint and a commitment to responsible forestry practices.We are proud to have been the first company to pioneer the transformation of Black Locust from an agricultural product to a commercial architectural application. This groundbreaking achievement underscores our commitment to innovation and sustainability in the industry.
D. Stubby Warmbold, of Black Locust Lumber, has a history of working within the wood industry from his early years of forestry in Canada to his pioneering developments in urban forestry in the United States. He is a true believer in adding value to underutilized forestry sources. Maria Warmbold’s expertise in fashion and design has elevated Black Locust Lumber into an architectural product studio. Their lifelong mission is to create sustainable wood products while giving back to the communities in which both the people and trees are grown.
Early years
Stubby always says he has sawdust in his veins and is a true Canadian, but not because of his hockey skills. From 15 years old and onward, Stubby worked for his family sawmill business.Moving East to New Jersey, Stubby became an urban forester. In the early 1990s, he saw the opportunity in repurposing city urban trees, that opened a whole door and grew into an urban sawmill. At this time the green building industry had just begun to emerge. We were one of the early pioneers in green architecture 29 years ago.
1990s
Utilizing Stubby’s knowledge and resources Stubby was able to come up with a solution at a time when NYC was actively looking for an alternative for tropical hardwoods. This alternative was Black Locust a sustainable and long-lasting wood type. We started working on Queens Botanical Gardens, our first NYC LEED platinum project. They loved our urban forestry work and wanted their architectural project to meet the greenest standard
2000s
April 21, 2001, on Earth Day Stubby was asked to be a guest lecturer at the QBG about the innovative use of Black Locust and our urban forestry programs.
The Queens Botanical Gardens, NYC LEED platinum project turned out to be an architectural award winner after bringing Black Locust Lumber, a new sustainable wood-alternative into a modern architectural design project.National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate in Boston approached Stubby to do a feature story for their Living On Earth segment, following him on his daily travels through Pennsylvania.
Part of our now 27 years of building CitiLog Business model, a very specific innovation for repurposing city trees, we were involved in numerous US forester federal publications for urban wood utilization. Listen to the radio segment and learn more about our journey to becoming a truly sustainable business.The past decade has brought us some of the most prominent, sustainable architectural design projects that we are immensely proud to have collaborated on: such as Facebook Headquarters, Menlo Park, California or Central European University, Budapest, Hungary, and more.
With decades of experience in the Black Locust business today, we have a design portfolio of Black Locust Decking, ProFlow Permeable Pavers™, broadwalks, site furnishings, rain screens, and Brise de Soleils.
We have the knowledge of how to achieve that flawless finish you are looking for in your sustainable architectural design project.
2010s
Over the coming years, Black Locust Lumber had grown into a global, sustainable business with products in Decking, Pavers, Rainscreens, and Site Furnishings. We were getting a lot of attention and more and more architects wanted to work with us.
Black Locust was new to the marketplace but was becoming more and more in demand. In 2011 Black Locust Lumber Global founders first came to Hungary, looking for the best Black Locust in the world. We spent three years traveling back and forth until we found the perfect Black Locust forest in Nyirbator, Hungary.In 2012, we were presented with the Green Ground Breaking Award from USGBC NJ for our urban sawmill project. The award honors companies that are on the cutting edge of sustainability and green building.
This company came to be known as CitiLog Newark, NJ. Citilog’s basic business model is to re-purpose old trees into new products. It was a big steppingstone on our mission to becoming Zero Waste, and also to further develop our social responsibility commitment. Learn more about Citilog from this video.2015 was another milestone for Black Locust Lumber Global. We epanded our business to Europe to be able to continuously meet the ever-growing demand of our customers for Black Locust Lumber architectural design projects across the globe.
To add to our well established USA operations, we grew to Europe to meet worldwide demands. This allows us to work with the best quality wood and at the same time enables us to increase our global outreach.
